Behold the Future
by Sweetstargazer6989
Summary: Draco Malfoy is all grown up he is now a respectable, responsible man who is barely even a shadow of the contemptible boy he used to be at Hogwarts. The family he has started is unbelievably amazing. But is it just that..unbelievable?
1. Chapter 1

It's a Wonderful Life

Draco Malfoy was sitting on his patio reading the newspaper on a bright summer afternoon. He was quite enjoying this wonderful day; the sun was shining in a practically cloudless sky, there was just a slight breeze that made the heat of the summer bearable, and the scent of summer flowers blooming in mid-day had just begun to reach his nose. Feeling completely relaxed and comfortable, Draco began to concentrate on the newspaper resting in his hands. The news in this small town in the English countryside was increasingly more joyful as the threat of dark magic was finally coming to an end. In the city, newspapers were littered with information about the newest happenings at the Ministry of Magic. The Ministry always seemed to be the center of attention; newspapers would thrive on as small of information as what coffee the Minister of Magic drinks. Here in the small town of Willowshire, news was so much more peaceful and calming. The headline of the newspaper Draco was reading was about the town carnival that would be at the community park this coming Saturday. He smiled think of how much his daughter would enjoy going to the carnival.

At the thought of his daughter, Draco looked up to see what she and her two brothers were up to in the back yard. The boys were pretending to be pirates in their tree house. They had raised the Jolly Roger and were gleefully chanting a pirate song. He grinned at how the almost-identical twins were so imaginative. Ever since they had taken a trip to the local library, the boys had practically obsessed over books that focused on pirates and swashbuckling. They had insisted on making wooden swords and wearing eye patches, even sporting them at meals. He expected to see his daughter sitting at the bottom of the tree, playing with her favorite doll, unable to join the boys that played high above her head. But when he looked below the tree house he didn't see her. Instead, he felt a gentle tugging on the hem of his khaki shorts.

Upon looking down, his eyes met those of a small girl with a curly brown mop for hair and an adorable, toothy smile. Her aqua colored sundress matched two bow shaped barrettes in her hair and in her tiny left hand she held a doll that resembled a character in her favorite movie. Draco found it funny that out of all the dolls she had, she would only play with this one which had been her mother's. He let a chuckle escape from his mouth as he put down his newspaper and gathered his little daughter in his arms. He heard her giggle as he spun her around and finally set her down on his shoulders. He heard a voice call to him from inside the light-colored stone house.

"Draco, dear! Bring the kids in for lunch!"

His wife's warm and loving voice echoed in his mind as he carried his little girl past the now blooming flower garden and across the yard. Draco noticed two butterflies gently floating past and saw his daughter's small arms reach in front of his face trying to capture a butterfly between her fingertips. But to her dismay they flew higher and out of her reach. Finally he reached the tree house, and called up to the twins.

"Ahoy mates! The maiden fair has prepared a delightful meal for the brave pirates. She requests that you come to port immediately."

"Aye aye Captain!" he heard them cry and they began climbing down the rope ladder leading to the ground. Once they both were down from the tree house they turned and saluted their father. Then they all turned and began marching across the yard to the house with Draco in the lead, daughter on shoulders, and two sons following close behind still chanting their pirate song. As they entered through the French doors in the back of the house the sweet aroma of apple pie filled their senses. The young girl wriggled about on Draco's shoulders and gleefully said, "Daddy down! Daddy down!"

"Of course, angel," Draco replied removing his daughter from his shoulders and placing her on the mahogany wood floor. He ruffled her curls before she waddled off toward the kitchen where a voice could be heard humming a sweet tune. The tall, platinum blonde haired man recognized it from the movie that his wife had showed to their children which quickly became their daughter's favorite film. It had been about a girl whose father had loved her dearly but after he died, the girl's stepmother made her a maid to them in her own home. With the help of a fairy godmother (Draco recalled being shocked at the girl's disbelief when the fairy used magic) the girl went to a royal ball and fell in love with the prince. It was at this point in the movie where the song that his wife was humming had occurred. He stood looking out of their bay window trying to recall the words.

_So this is love mm mmm mm mmm_

_So this is love_

_So this is what makes life divine_

He smiled thinking of his love for his wife. The smile widened at the thought of their children. He had been honestly overjoyed when the twins had been born. Two handsome, blonde boys to carry on the Malfoy name was the perfect blessing to Draco. But if you would call how Draco had felt at his sons' birth "overjoyed", then there was quite possibly no word to describe his feelings when his little girl had come into the world. She was his pride and joy; a little princess to spoil and adore. Her innocent face would make him give into anything she would ask for, be it chocolate chip cookies or a hug. His thoughts drifted back to his wife; her delectable cooking, her laugh, her enchanting smile that made her eyes light up, the way she would tuck their children into bed, the way she would snuggle close to him when they went to bed. Yes, Draco felt himself lucky to have such a lovely wife.

A look of doubt swept across the mature wizard's face right before the sub-conscious Draco spoke up in a panicked tone, "What does she look like?...What is her name?..." Memories were fading fast from his memory and he couldn't understand why. "Bloody hell! I know her name! We've been married for seven years, for heaven's sakes! Of course I know her name. It's…..It's….."

A sharp tugging on his arm caused him to pull out of his extremely confused thoughts. One of his sons (the spitting image of his father, no less) was tugging on his right wrist.

"Come on, dad! Lunch is ready! Come on! You know how mum gets when we're late for a meal. Come on, dad! Come on…."

The tugging became more and more forceful and the voice began to change. It was no longer the voice of his six year old son, but more of a distraught and angry teenage girl.

"Ugh! COME ON! GET UP, you stupid PRAT!!! COME ON! You're going to be late for breakfast! UGH! MALFOY! GET…UP…NOW!!!"

With each of the last few words the girl said, she gave a hard tug on the wrist of what appeared to belong to a gigantic lump of sheets and blankets. Dressed in her school uniform and hair soaking wet, the girl was frantically trying to wake whatever was under that lump of sheets. Her hair was flinging wildly about, spraying water all over the boy whose arm she was persistently tugging on. The girl cried out once more, "**WILL** …**YOU**... **PLEASE**…**GET**…**UP**!!!"

Draco Malfoy's eyelids flew open to the sight of one Hermione Granger standing in his Head Boy dormitory yanking on his arm.


	2. Chapter 2

Just Another Day in the Heads' Common Room

The Hogwarts Head Boy had awoken to find Hermione Granger desperately trying to wake him. It appeared that one of her attempts had been to open the heavy, velvet curtains in his room because a large amount of sunlight was now flooding through the large windows that were usually covered by those forest green curtains. Draco now squinted at the brightness of his usually dim room and then realized that there was still a constant tugging on his right wrist. It was then that the teenage boy slowly became fully aware of his surroundings…

He was in his Head Boy dormitory for sure; the down comforter and feather pillow gave that away. He had been asleep…but now he wasn't. Someone had definitely woken him up. That person was still in his room. That person was still holding onto his wrist and now causing it to flail up and down like an old-fashioned water pump. That person was Hermione Granger; the know-it-all, bookworm Hermione Granger.

The revelation of his last thought dawned on him and he quickly yanked his arm away from the girl's grasp. She let out a surprised scream and fell to the floor with a light THUD. Her soaking wet hair flung itself gracefully through the air, landing the curls softly in front of the startled girl's face. Draco watched with disgust as she attempted to push the mass amounts of hair out of her line of sight. She looked up at the boy still in bed and opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.

"Should have left your hair where it was, mudblood," he said as he sat up in bed. "Then I wouldn't have to look at that horrid face of yours."

Hermione stared at him for a moment before making a decision to take off her shoes. She could feel him glaring at her as she untied her right shoelace while she sat on the ebony wood floor and proceeded to untie the left shoelace. Upon removal of her shoes she stood up with a shoe in each hand. An innocent smile swept across her face as she looked at the blonde haired boy. Then she swiftly threw one black, chunky shoe at him saying, "This is for calling me a mudblood!" and without hesitation chucked the other shoe at him. The first shoe he caught in his hand but the second one came so quickly that it painfully collided with his head. Hermione gave a proud smile saying, "That was for not getting up on your own." Without another look in his direction she turned on her heels and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

He sat there for a minute holding a shoe in his left hand and rubbing the spot on his head where the other shoe had hit him with his right hand. Then he realized "_Did she really just do that? Did Granger really just stand up against me?_" With anger pulsating through his body, he threw the covers off of him and leapt out of bed making a b-line for his door with one black shoe still in hand. He dangerously pulled open his door and ran across a deep purple carpeted landing to another door with the letters "HG" carved delicately into the wood. He reached for the golden doorknob, and upon turning it caused the door to fly open so hard that one might think it would come off of its hinges. Draco opened his mouth to begin yelling, but the sight in front of him momentarily paralyzed him.

The room before his eyes was stunning. A cherry wood floor seemed illuminated by the light that was carelessly streaming from the two floor-to-ceiling windows that stood across from the doorway. Between the two windows a queen sized bed shielded by a sheer white fabric rested, covered by a fluffy white comforter folded down to reveal satin, scarlet sheets. Draco marveled at the amount of pillows that had to be placed against a massive headboard which glittered gold. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling that was twelve feet away from the floor. Surrounding the chandelier, a mural of angels, cherubs, and clouds reminded Draco of the ceiling of The Church in La Gran Mezquita which he had learned about in Muggle Studies last year. He was forced into taking that class but after a while didn't mind learning about the artists in the Renaissance period. The ceiling was of course enchanted so that the angels could be seen playing heralding trumpets and the cherubs sat on floating white clouds giggling, smiling and pointing at Draco. His eyes then traveled to the wall on his left which served as home to a large, cherry wood wardrobe flanked on its right by a by a tidy looking desk and on its left by an elegant vanity. Also on the left wall he noticed an open door which he saw led to a white tiled bathroom that gleamed with cleanliness. He saw something move in the vanity mirror and quickly turned his attention to the right wall where a seven foot high, white marble fireplace hosted a small roaring fire. To one side of the fireplace sat a white chaise lounge accented by a red pillow adorned with gold tassels and an armchair in the same decoration sat to the other side of the fireplace. It was there that Draco found the source of the movement for sitting on a fluffy white rug in front of the fire sat Hermione staring determinedly at Draco but with a hint of wonder.

He had been standing there for at least three minutes looking all over her room. Hermione realized that he had never been inside of her room before but didn't expect this kind of awe to overtake him. As his gaze fell upon her, golden-brown eyes met with silver-blue ones and locked into a bewildered stare. Neither of them dared move of make a sound. Hermione blinked and brought herself back to reality, averting his eyes and clearing her throat hoping that it would bring him back to his senses to tell her why he had so suddenly barged into her bedroom. Her plan succeeded and for the third time that morning, Draco returned to his thoughts. His stare quickly turned to a glare as he threw the shoe that he was still holding onto the gleaming floor.

"There's your bloody shoe," his deep voice bellowed at the girl still sitting on the carpet in front of the fire. "NEVER enter my room again uninvited!" With that he stormed out of the Head Girl dorm and back out onto the deep purple landing. He heard her give an annoyed snort as he walked down the seven steps to their common room and faintly heard footsteps following him.

"HA! You think I actually wanted to be in your room? I was only in there because you had to be woken up," stated Hermione with a note of poison in her tone.

"And what, pray tell, was so important that I needed to be woken up?" Draco uttered trying to control his temper. Hermione was obviously angered by this because she stomped her foot on the ground and began yelling.

"WEREN'T YOU PAYING **ANY** ATTENTION WHEN I WAS TALKING TO YOU LAST NIGHT??? HONESTLY! WHEN I SAID, 'MALFOY, LISTEN CLOSELY. PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE WANTS TO TALK TO US BEFORE BREAKFAST TOMORROW. IN THIS LETTER HE SAYS IT'S IMPORTANT' YOU WOULD THINK THAT YOU NEEDED TO KNOW THAT PIECE OF INFORMATION!!! REALLY! YOU THINK DUMBLEDORE WOULD HAVE PICKED A MORE RESPONSIBLE HEAD BOY! IT'S ONLY TWO AND A HALF WEEKS SINCE WE GOT HERE…MAYBE HE COULD STILL SWITCH YOU FOR SOMEONE LIKE HARRY OR RON! OH WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU, MALFOY! YOU NEVER LISTEN! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK WITH YOU IN THIS POSITION OF HONOR WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN GIVE ME THE COMMON CURTEOUSY TO **PAY ATTENTION** WHEN I'M SPEAKING?"

When Hermione was through, her face had turned a bright shade of red and she seemed rather out of breath. After quickly regaining her composure she said calmly but through gritted teeth, "You hadn't woken up by the time I had gotten out of my bath so I was worried you wouldn't wake up in time for our meeting with Dumbledore."

Draco stood staring with wide eyes at the girl who was just screaming at the top of her lungs. He hadn't seen someone get this upset since Draco ditched Pansy Parkinson to play a game of Quidditch with some other Slytherins in third year. He recalled her temper tantrum very vividly and was quite relieved that at least Hermione hadn't slapped him…yet. Quickly he realized that she was waiting for him to say something. _She probably wants me to thank her. Yeah, like that'd ever happen._ "Next time mind your own business, Granger."

"I think you misunderstand me, Malfoy. There will be NO 'next time'. Either you clean up your act and start being responsible and worthy of this position or I will insist to Dumbledore that you be removed from the position of Head Boy."

Draco kept on a poker face but inside he was slightly worried. You don't mess with Hermione Granger when she gets an idea in her head. Everyone knows that. Draco had thought of shrugging it off like it was no big deal but then he caught the wild glint in her eyes. She was serious and he could tell. He didn't want to lose his position as Head Boy; it meant too much to him, but more importantly his parents. He had for once made his father proud which he didn't do very often. His father's drawling voice ran was running through his head.

"Well, you seem to have done one thing right, boy. Maybe you'll turn out a true Malfoy after all."

Draco knew he hadn't been as harsh with people as he'd seen his father be, but every time he had the chance it seemed he just couldn't. Most of the time it only turned out to be a fight with words. Apparently this didn't please his Mr. Malfoy. Getting Head Boy was the "best" thing he'd done in a long time. But he couldn't simply just let Granger win this fight. No, he'd go down with honor and pride of the Malfoy name.

"Just keep you bushy-haired, buck-toothed face out of my way this year and maybe there won't be anymore problems."

With a "hmph", Hermione turned on her heels and out of the portrait hole leaving Draco in the middle of the common room with his trademark smirk but his comment wasnt completely true. Her hair wasn't as bushy as it was in their younger years at Hogwarts. Instead her brown locks reached her lower back in gentle curls. As for her teeth, well his insult was very much out-dated to say the least. Now she had a beautiful smile, which Draco noted that he had not personally received but had seen on occasion while she was around Potter and Weasley. A portrait to Draco's right spoke up.

"That fight wasn't as bad as the one you two had Sunday night. Miss Granger seemed to get quite angry in this one, though. Maybe you should listen to her this time"

Draco scoffed, "Do I ever listen to her?"

"Never," replied the portrait stifling a laugh, "but then again, you also never yell at her when you are only in boxers."

Draco stormed back to his room silently swearing to himself for his lack of clothing. Two minutes later he was back out of his room with his black cloak draped over one shoulder. As he made his way out of the portrait hole he couldn't help but wonder how he was going to make it through the year with Granger watching his every move. With that thought in his head, he quickly began making his way towards the Great Hall.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Forgotten

Hermione slammed the portrait door after yet another fight with the ferret. She didn't understand how a person could be so insufferable. It seemed impossible, but then again this is a Malfoy. Truthfully, she didn't think he was horrible choice for Head Boy. "He does get excellent marks in most, if not all, of his classes and he is a skilled wizard. But his attitude towards everyone but himself is awful," she thought as made her way down a flight of Hogwarts' constantly changing staircases, braiding her hair all the while. She was about to head down another flight of stairs when she saw a school barn owl swooping down towards her. She watched as it landed rather clumsily onto the stone banister beside her and held out its leg with a small roll of parchment attached. She took the note and went to thank the owl but it had already taken off again to deliver another note in the direction she just came from. Looking back at the slip of paper, she unrolled it and began to read:

Miss Granger,

I'm terribly sorry but I will have to postpone the meeting I asked for with you and Mister Malfoy. Something has come up and it would be quite impossible for me to meet you before breakfast this morning. Could we possibly reschedule the meeting for before lunch this afternoon? If I do not get a note back from you, I will assume that this time is convenient. Again, I apologize for the need to reschedule.

Sincerely, Professor Dumbledore

"Not a problem for me," thought Hermione, "but who knows what Malfoy will say." Just as that thought occurred to her, she saw him appear at the top of the stairs leading from the Head dormitory. Determined to get away from him, Hermione turned and resumed her descent to the Great Hall. It wasn't long, though, before she stopped again for a wrongly aimed spell had just smashed a painting not 4 feet from her. Pulling out her wand, she began to rush down the stairs in order to find the source of the spell and according to the sounds she heard behind her, Malfoy had the same idea. Once they reached the third floor it was clear what was going on. Two fourth year Ravenclaw boys were casting spells in each other's direction while a very pleased looking blonde girl watched from the side.

"Stop fighting this inst- "

But Hermione did not finish her sentence. The last thing she that heard before she was thrown through the air was "STUPEFY" chanted by one of the boys, followed by a quiet "oops." A red bolt of light had shot towards her and she crumpled to the floor.

Draco had reached the fight seconds after Hermione had but she had already started screaming at the boys. The next thing he knew she was lying in a heap on the floor. The boys had stopped once they realized one of them hit her and were standing completely still looking at the ground each with their own different injuries. Draco marched over to where they were and began distributing punishments.

"Both of you boys will receive a nights worth of detention and 25 points each will be taken from Ravenclaw," he said sternly to the boys. Then he turned to the girl, "And five points from Hufflepuff for you not attempting to stop the fight. I'll be notifying your Heads of Houses immediately. Boys, go to the hospital wing and ask Madame Pomfrey to fix your.." he looked at the one boy "..um..extra limbs. And you, Miss Inigo, go down to breakfast now." The three fourth years stood where they were, staring at where Hermione's body lay on the floor. "I SAID NOW!" he screamed at them and they quickly turned and made their way to breakfast.

With a deep sigh Draco turned and walked over to where Hermione was laying unconscious. He pointed his and at her and muttered "Ennervate." Her eyelids fluttered open and she began muttering something that sounded like "20…Ravenclaw…lose house points."

"Relax, Granger. I took care of the situation," Draco told her as he helped her to stand up. "I took 25 points from each boy and 5 from Hufflepuff for the girl."

"Malfoy! Points taken off for fighting are only 20 points each! That's 10 extra points total from Raven-"

"A worthy amount of points for knocking the Head Girl unconscious, I assumed," interrupted Draco. "Wasn't that the kind of responsibility you were ranting about this morning?"

Hermione looked at him in shock that he actually listened to her but still trying to regain her balance from being hit with _Stupefy_. She used the closest object to steady herself, Malfoy.

"Don't expect me to help you walk into breakfast," Draco drawled, "I don't particularly want to be seen around you. But I couldn't just leave you sitting on the floor here or surely I'd hear it from you later."

"Well it's not really a party to be around you, either, but thank you for your help," Hermione replied back. Finally able to walk straight again, Hermione let go of Malfoy and they at last made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As they walked through the large doors, they realized that they were actually quite late for breakfast because many students were exiting the Great Hall laughing and chatting. Ginny Weasley, who was in the group leaving the hall captured Hermione in a hug and told her she wanted to talk to her later. Draco, who for some reason was still walking near Hermione, looked over and wondered why the youngest Weasley had greeted her in such a different way. When he asked her what the hug was for, her simple reply was that it was none of his business. They separated to go to their separate house tables.

Hermione sat herself between Harry and Ron and gave them a pleasant "Good morning!"

"Oh good, you're finally here! How come you're so late?" inquired Harry taking a sip of orange juice.

"Two fourth years were dueling in the hallway. I'm lucky Malfoy was there or else they might not have stopped fighting. I was hit with Stupefy before _I_ could stop them," explained Hermione.

"Are you sure it wasn't Malfoy that hit you with Stupefy from behind or something? Just so he could get the glory of stopping the fight," Ron piped up accusingly.

"Of course not, Ron," she replied, "He's the one who cast the counter-spell to wake me up. Besides, I saw the jet of red light coming from the one boy, I believe his name is Stoges."

"Stoges? I think he's one of Ravenclaw's beaters this year," Harry stated. "Oh, yeah! Hermione!"

"Yes?" she asked expectantly.

"Did you finish that Potions essay on Doxycide? I can't remember everything we need to write about. Can I take a gander at yours later just to make sure I have everything?" Harry asked with an innocent smile.

"Oh, right. The Potions essay," Hermione said sounding slightly disappointed. "Sure, Harry, I'll let you look at mine, but you know I really shouldn't let you! This is our NEWTs year, Harry. You need to start doing essays one your own."

"Last time, I promise," said Harry with a grin. "Thanks a bunch Hermione. Well, Ron and I have to go. I called a quick Quidditch meeting before classes this morning."

"Oh, all right. I'll see you two in Care of Magical Creatures, then," Hermione said again sounding highly disappointed. She watched as the two boys left the Great Hall chatting with each other about different Quidditch moves that they want to try this year. Hermione was glad that Harry was Quidditch captain and Ron was still Gryffindor keeper, but it seemed all they ever talked about was Quidditch. Even Ginny, who became a chaser after Harry was allowed to return to the game, had her moments when all she could talk about was how Gryffindor's team is going to be better than ever this year. Now left alone at her part of the table, Hermione grabbed a chocolate pastry and got up from her seat. "They just had other things on their minds," she thought to herself, "They couldn't have forgotten. But what if they did." She could feel the burn of tears starting to form in her eyes so she quickened her pace to leave the Great Hall.

Swiftly she made her way back up to the Head Dormitory softly crying all the way. Once inside she ran to her room and shut the door behind her. Unable to hold her composure any longer, she slid to the ground against her door and started sobbing uncontrollably. She couldn't understand why they wouldn't remember. They'd known her for 7 years, why would they forget now? She jumped at a noise; a noise which sounded like someone knocking at her door. Panic rushed through her. She didn't know he had been in the room; she hadn't thought to check. "Please go away," she said quietly through the door. He was the last person she would want to see her crying.

Draco hadn't stayed at breakfast for more than two minutes, which was certainly more than enough time for Pansy Parkinson to get on his nerves. He had left her at the table with Crabbe who was still eating what had to be his fifth serving of eggs. He went back up to the Head Dormitory thinking that he would need to get his books and that he could maybe take a nap before his first class started. He was lying on the couch attempting to sleep when he heard the portrait open and close. Granger had most likely returned to get her books, too. Then Draco heard her quietly crying. Once she had closed the door to her room, the crying only got louder.

"She must not have seen me," he thought while sitting up. If there was one thing that he couldn't stand to listen to, besides Hagrid teaching Care of Magical Creatures, it was the sound of a woman crying. He shivered thinking back to life at the Malfoy Manor when his mother would lock herself in a room and cry for hours while Lucius Malfoy stood outside of the door yelling at her. The topics of his anger ranged from her being a horrible wife to her being unworthy of the pureblood title. He would stop screaming after an hour or so, but the sobs of Narcissa still continued. Draco remembered not understanding why his father would say such things; why he would make her cry. He would sit outside of the door whispering to his mother to please come out, to let him in to see her. She would tell him to please leave her and to go learn from his father the meaning of being a Malfoy. Though he was very young when these happenings occurred, the sound of her crying still stayed in his mind.

Now hearing Hermione crying, something in him snapped and he found himself walking towards her room and softly knocking on the door. He heard her quietly say "Please go away" but he couldn't remove himself from the blockade between them. He knelt next to the door as he used to do when he was young.

"Hermione…" he said quietly through the door. "Please talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."

The crying stopped. He could hear movement on the other side of the door and it slowly opened. Hermione stared at Draco in disbelief. "You just called me Hermione…"

Draco wasn't sure why he had called her by her first name, but nonetheless he pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to the girl in front of him. As she wiped her tearstained face, he again asked her what was wrong.

She didn't understand why she was about to tell her enemy for so many years why she had been crying. Every year of their schooling at Hogwarts he had tormented her as well as her friends. Why would someone who hated her so much want to know why she had been crying? Why should he care? She didn't understand but when she looked at him, she saw concern in his eyes. Absentmindedly, she had been playing with the edge of the handkerchief in her hands. She looked down at it and began to tell Draco what was upsetting her.

"They forgot. Harry and Ron. They didn't remember."

"Remember what?"

"Today is September the nineteenth," she replied still looking at the handkerchief.

"Why would they need to remember the nineteenth of September?" he asked, clearly confused as to the meaning of this day.

She looked up at him, her eyes once again shining with tears. Quietly she spoke. "Today is my eighteenth birthday."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:** Hope everyone is enjoying the story. This chapter is the longest out of the four so far, so prepare yourselves:)

* * *

Plans, Plays, and Parties

She looked up at him, her eyes once again shining with tears. Quietly she spoke. "Today is my eighteenth birthday."

He watched her as she closed her eyes and the tears began to slip down her face in a silent motion. He didn't know what to say to her. With every second of silence the tears increased in number and she began to shake with every breath she took. Draco found himself moving to sit next to her and slowly pulling her into his arms to comfort her. She buried her face in his chest and clung to his shirt still allowing her tears to fall freely. To him she felt so small in his arms, so fragile, like a porcelain doll that would break if you held it too tightly. He tried to calm her telling her that it would be all right, to please stop crying. His deep voice soothed her and soon she stopped shaking. He released her from his hold and pushed a lock of hair out of her face that was beginning to stick to the trail the tears had left behind. She again wiped her face with the handkerchief and went to hand it back to its owner.

"Keep it for the rest of the day in case you need it," he said with a small smile. "We'd better get going. If we don't leave now we'll without a doubt be late for class." Then he helped her up and left her room and went to get his books which were sitting beside a chair in the common room. Minutes later they were out of the common room and running down the stairs to get to class. They caught each other's eye as he walked into Transfiguration and she continued down the stairs and out onto the school grounds. By the time she reached Hagrid's hut, Ron and Harry had seen her and were standing waiting for her to join them.

"Hermione, what took you so long?" asked Ron as the class gathered around what Hagrid was about to show them.

"Er – I couldn't find my book," lied Hermione and shushed what he was about to reply so that she could hear the lesson.

"Mornin' everybody," Hagrid boomed to his class. "Today I've got a special treat for yeh. These are Livelies. As yeh can see, a Lively is a beautiful bird with purple and navy blue feathers, but don' get too close ter them. If they get too excited, they start ter twitter like mad, hence the name Livelies. Can anyone tell me what Livelies come in handy for?"

Everyone looked at Hermione. With a sigh she began, "Honestly, doesn't anyone else know the answer? No? Oh fine. Livelies are native to the United States and are useful in detecting earthquakes. They live in tiny burrows a few feet underground along fault lines. When an earthquake is about to occur, Livelies shoot up out of their burrows and begin to twitter uncontrollably. Many wizarding communities in the southwestern United States have prevented mass destruction from earthquakes by the pre-warnings from Livelies."

"Very good, Hermione. Ten points ter Gryffindor!" said Hagrid and he began explaining how the feet and ears of Livelies are very sensitive to movement and high-pitched sound. He then proceeded to demonstrate how the Livelies react by tapping on the cage that the Lively was sleeping in. The bird woke up immediately and began banging against the sides of its cage making loud chirping sounds. They were given an assignment to draw and label a Lively due at the end of class.

"That was a rather interesting lesson, I think," Hermione said to Harry as they turned in their papers. "It is a very intriguing bird."

"Yeah," said Harry, "I'm more happy that he kept it in the cage, though." At this they both laughed and made their way over to where Ron was still struggling with his drawing.

"Oh! Here's my Potions essay, Harry," she said handing him a roll of parchment. "You'll probably have enough time to finish before class. Oh for heaven's sakes, Ron, just turn it in already."

Ron took one last look at his drawing and then took it up to Hagrid. When he returned, the three of them walked over to their favorite tree beside the lake. Harry was looking over Hermione's Potions essay and making corrections on his own. Ron was lying on his stomach playing with a blade of grass and Hermione was sitting against the tree reading.

"Hermione, when is the next prefect meeting?" Ron asked out of the blue.

"Saturday," replied Hermione looking up from her book. "You'd better finish up with your essay, Harry. We only have about 10 minutes before we need to be in Potions."

"Wonderful," said Harry sarcastically, "I can't wait for double Potions with the Slytherins. Let's just hope Snape isn't in a bad mood."

"Is he ever in a _good_ mood?" Ron asked now levitating a twig. He and Harry laughed at the remark but Hermione went back to reading her book. She didn't understand why she didn't want to laugh with them. Was it because she was Head Girl and not supposed to be making jokes about teachers? Or was it because she was still sore about them forgetting her birthday? Why didn't she remind them about her birthday? Was it because they should have remembered? They had known her for 7 years of their lives. Or possibly was it that she didn't want them to know? That if they were intended to know, they would have known first thing that morning. Was she being selfish about her wanting them to remember her birthday or were her thoughts justifiable? Did they have a reason for forgetting or were they purposely forgetting to make her upset? No, that can't be right. But why would they forget?

"Hermione? Hermione!" Harry was waving his hands wildly in front of her face. She didn't realize she had been staring into space. "I said I finished my essay. We need to be heading up to the school now or we'll be late."

"Oh. Y-yes, you're right Harry. We have to get going," she replied with her thoughts still lingering on the internal battle she just had with herself. The three students then got up and made their way up the hill to the castle. They began sprinting down to the dungeons in fear of Snape taking off 10 points each for the three of them getting to class a minute before the bell would ring. Luckily, Snape was reading over something in his office when they arrived and they had at least 4 minutes to spare. Harry quickly returned Hermione's essay and looked over his own once more just to be safe. Hermione was setting her bag down when she looked up to see Draco walking into the room. He was looking back at her. They kept eye contact until Hermione felt someone poking on her elbow.

"Hermione, did I spell this right?" asked Harry pointing to a spot on his essay, but there was no time to answer. The bell rang, Snape slammed his office door shut, and class began.

"Pass your essays to the front of the room. I would like to remind all of you that this is your last year at Hogwarts and you want to be doing the best you can possibly do, unless," his cold eyes wandered over Harry, Ron and Neville, "you are incapable of doing so. Today we will be preparing the Doxycide potion. In your essays you should have written about how the Doxycide potion is used and what ingredients are in the potion. I expect to have a corked vile of potion from each of you by the end of class." He waved his wand and the list of materials and directions appeared on the board. "Begin."

To Draco the class seemed to go on forever. He finished his potion with an insanely large amount of time to spare. His vile was the only one sitting on the table in the front of the room. At first he had tried to watch Crabbe and Goyle make their potions, but that only made him become bored faster. He set his head down on the desk and tried to clear his mind of the sounds in the noisy classroom. One sound was sticking out in his mind more than all the others.

"Ron! Don't put that ingredient in yet! Look at the board and see what you forgot to put in. Harry, you're stirring rather wildly. Boys, try to be careful!"

Her voice filled his head as he drifted off into a sound sleep.

There was a red and white checkered blanket spread out on a grassy field. He sat up on the blanket and looked around. "What a nice nap," he thought as he saw his two sons tossing a quaffle around. He turned on the blanket and opened their picnic basket sitting next to him. Five turkey sandwiches were neatly packaged in their own individual bag. There was an assortment of fruit: apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes. In the right side of the basket were a container of homemade lemonade and a stack of plastic cups. He began to pull the contents out of the basket setting them at five different spots on the blanket. Five. Five spots. Five sandwiches. Five cups. He counted himself and the two twins. Two were missing.

"Boys, try to be careful!" a voice called from somewhere behind him. He looked up from the blanket to see the boys wrestling. He turned around. There was a swing-set a little bit away from him. Two people were by the swing-set: a little girl with curly brown hair swinging and giggling all the way and a woman with the same color hair as the little girl pushing her on the swing. She was wearing a light green sweater and jeans and her hair reached her lower back in sweeping waves. He called to her, "The picnic is ready, darling." She turned. Somewhere in the distance he heard a loud bell. Someone was shaking him. "Get up, Draco. Class is over."

He woke with a jolt, not realizing where he was. He stood up and began walking out of the room. "Potions," he thought, "That's where I was." He recalled the dream he had, the woman in his dream. She had turned to face him. What did she look like? He couldn't remember her face.

"OY, MALFOY!" He turned to see a red faced, red-haired boy storming towards him.

-5 minutes earlier-

Hermione had been the second person to finish her Doxycide potion and she chose to help Ron and Harry with theirs. They finished by the end of the class but Harry's seemed to bubble a lot and Ron's had a strange odor. Nevertheless, they both turned in a corked vile as the bell rang. All three of them collected their books and began to leave the room.

"Hey, Hermione, you dropped this," said Harry handing her a white handkerchief with a beautiful dark green edge and the letters "DM" written in black in the corner of the fabric. "What is 'DM', Hermione?" he asked staring at the piece of cloth in her hand.

Her face went pale. She hadn't realized that Draco had his initials embroidered into his handkerchief. "Nothing," she stated rather lamely.

"Well it can't be nothing," Ron said grabbing it from her hand, "otherwise it wouldn't be written in such fancy writing. And it's green and black. Those aren't normal colors for you, Hermione. Those are colors one would associate with..with…"

"Slytherin!" Ron and Harry said simultaneously. It quickly dawned on them what "DM" stood for. Ron's face got as red as his hair and Harry's fists clenched. In a matter of seconds they were stomping down the hallway towards the owner of the handkerchief. Hermione stood there dazed as to what just happened. "Oh no," she thought as she heard Ron scream.

"OY, MALFOY! What's the meaning of this?"

"Well, Weasley, that's a handkerchief. If you want to know what it means, then ask Granger. She's a walking dictionary," he said without the intention to insult but more complimentary.

"I didn't ask for the definition, Malfoy," said Ron, his face getting (if possible) even redder. "I want to know what your handkerchief is doing with our Hermione!"

"I lent it to her. Do you find a problem with that?" he asked calmly as Hermione arrived between her two friends.

"You stay away from Hermione, you ferret faced buffoon," Harry yelled, finally getting into the argument.

"Hey Potter, you from fourth year sent an owl. He wants his insults back," Draco said with a smirk. Hermione cast him a pleading glance as if asking him to stop. The smirk vanished from his face. "Boys, if we're going to continue to fight, lets be gentlemen and not do it in the presence of a lady. Shall we?" He indicated to a classroom on his left. Harry and Ron looked to each other, then to Hermione, and then to Malfoy and began to stomp towards the classroom. Draco followed them in, only stopping to tell Crabbe and Goyle to guard the door.

Hermione stood looking there for a while, switching between looking at the door, Crabbe and Goyle, and Draco's handkerchief in her hand. It was Draco's fault they were in there. If he hadn't given Hermione his handkerchief then none of this would have happened. But then maybe it was her own fault. If she hadn't have been crying then Draco wouldn't have had to be the gentleman and give her his handkerchief to dry her tear-stained face. But then why was she crying in the first place? Harry and Ron, that's why she was crying. They forgot her birthday and made her so upset. So it was their own fault they were in there. She hoped Draco didn't hurt them too bad though. But then what if Harry and Ron hurt Draco pretty bad. It is a two against one fight, which is clearly not fair. And all Draco did was be kind to Hermione earlier that morning. For whom should she hope wouldn't get hurt, then? Her two best friends for seven years of her life who forgot her birthday or a boy who has made Harry's, Ron's and her own life a living hell since first year but is suddenly acting sweet today by comforting her when she really needed someone? Yes that was strange. Out of nowhere Draco starts acting this way. Wasn't it only this morning that they were screaming their heads off at each other? But it was a more passionate battle this morning, worse than they'd ever had before except maybe last Sunday. And then he started getting nicer and nicer as the day drew on. Why all of a sudden was he acting this way? There has to be some change in his thoughts that made him act like this. For all these years she'd thought of his as just mean and cold-hearted but today it seemed like a different Draco. Why? Why did he change today?

"HERMIONE!"

She didn't realize she had been standing there for a while just staring at the handkerchief in her hand. She looked up to find the owner of the voice who called her. The bright red hair of Ginny Weasley caught her eye and she walked over to where her friend was. At least someone had remembered her birthday. Of course she didn't actually say "Happy Birthday, Hermione" but what else could that hug have been for?

"Hey, Gin. I'm so glad to see you," Hermione said with a smile.

"I'm happy I found you," Ginny said rather out of breath. "I've been searching these halls since the end of my last class for you. I forgot you had double Potions today. I just have something to tell you that couldn't wait until later."

Hermione smiled. She knew she would get her first "Happy Birthday" of the morning. "Oh, Gin, I just knew - -"

Ginny interrupted her, "I know! I just knew that Neville would ask me out too! I mean every time I walk into the common room or the Great Hall he looks at the ground and sort of blushes. It was so adorable. And then this morning at breakfast he asked me if I would like to be his girlfriend. And since I'd given up my crush on Harry years ago I'd sort of developed a liking to Neville. He's quiet, sweet, and sensitive. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier because everybody was going out the Great Hall and I couldn't very well stop in the middle of the crowd and back up traffic. So instead I gave you that hug to tell you something good happened. I'm so happy, Hermione!"

Hermione stared at her friend. The hug wasn't for her birthday. It was because Neville asked Ginny to be his girlfriend. "That's great, Ginny." She'd forgotten just like Harry and Ron. "I'm really happy for you both." What kind of friends did she have that just forgot her eighteenth birthday? "It was pretty clear that Neville has liked you for a while." How could they all have forgotten? "I'm glad he finally asked you."

"Oh, I just knew you'd be happy for me. We should start going toward the Great Hall though. Lunch should be starting in about 10 minutes and I want to meet up with Neville and everything." Ginny blushed and a small giggle escaped from her mouth. Hermione looked back to the classroom where Harry, Ron and Draco were fighting. No loud crashing sounds were coming from the room though. They probably put a silencing charm on it.

"Okay, lets head up there," Hermione said her eyes still lingering on the door. They walked up to the entrance hall where they met Neville. He must have left potions almost immediately to try and find Ginny. They must have just missed each other searching for each other and Ginny searching for Hermione. Ginny walked to his side and they held hands while walking into the Great Hall. Hermione smiled to herself thinking of how sweet they were together. Upon entering the Great Hall, a tall figure with a long white beard approached Hermione.

"Hello, Miss Granger," Professor Dumbledore spoke in a happy voice. "I see you are here early to lunch for our meeting. Ah, but where is Mr. Malfoy."

Oh no! The meeting with Dumbledore that was rescheduled from before breakfast to before lunch. She had completely forgot about it with everything that was going on. And now Draco wasn't here because he was down in some classroom fighting with Harry and Ron. What was she supposed to tell Professor Dumbledore? Hermione was in a panic, "He..er…he's probably…umm…"

"Right here, Professor." He entered the hall less than a minute after Dumbledore began speaking with Hermione. "Sorry I'm a little bit late."

-15 minutes earlier-

Draco shut the door to the empty classroom and before he even turned around he put a silencing charm on the room and addressed the to other boys in the room. "Put the wands down, Potter, Weasley. I'm not going to fight you." When he turned around his suspicions were confirmed. There were two wands aimed directly at his head. He didn't make a move to reach for his wand but instead began talking to Harry and Ron.

"I have known you two for the past seven years of our schooling. I've seen you everyday of the school year. First years look at you and whisper to each other, 'Wow, that's Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They're smart, talented, and the best of friends. They look up to you, Weasley, as a Gryffindor prefect, keeper on the Gryffindor house quidditch team, and coming from a good family line. Potter, they look up to you obviously as the Boy-Who-Lived, but also as the Gryffindor quidditch captain. Above all you two seem to treasure loyalty, trust, and friendship. Why is it then that I am standing here in this classroom with the two of you? Because you two have got to be the biggest idiots I have ever known in my life."

All through Draco's introductory speech, Harry and Ron stayed silent. Their wands were still pointed at his head and neither could understand why Draco Malfoy was talking to them so calmly and, basically, analyzing their lives.

"Where do you get off telling us what our lives are like?" Ron said furiously.

"Yeah, get to the point, Malfoy, or you might end up in the hospital wing with hair growing excessively in uncomfortable places." Harry said tightening his grip on his wand.

"Merlin. For Gryffindors you two are quite impatient," said Draco with a smirk and then seeing the look on Harry's face continued to speak. "All right already, the reason Granger had my handkerchief is because she was practically bawling her eyes out earlier."

"WHY?" shouted Ron, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"

"Oh please, Weasley. It wasn't my fault. It was your own bloody fault. Don't get so worked up at me when you two are the reason she was crying."

"Really? And for what reason would cause her to be crying because of us, since you seem to be the expert on Hermione today," Harry said glaring at Draco.

"You two really don't know what today is, do you?" Draco asked, amazed.

"I know! It's Thursday!" Ron said excitedly.

"It's more specific than that, Weasley," Draco said rolling his eyes.

Harry began thinking. He looked to Draco, then to Ron, then to a book sitting on a desk by him. "Are they coming out with a revised edition of _Hogwarts, A History_ today?"

Draco slapped his hand to his forehead. Could they really be this dense? At least they weren't pointing their wands at him anymore. "No, Potter. It has to do something more with Hermione herself."

Ron took on a rather fearful look. "It isn't that monthly…uh…'girl thing', is it?"

"Honestly, Wealsey, you're worse than Potter," Draco said, shocked that Ron had thought it was that. "You're both way off track, you gits, it's her birthday. Her eighteenth one at that."

Harry's jaw seemed to drop to the floor and Ron began frantically counting the days on his fingers. When he had finished calculating, his jaw also dropped. They forgot her birthday! And of all people to remind them, Draco Malfoy. Before the two could say anything else, Draco spoke again.

"Now there is still a way to redeem yourselves. Right now, Hermione is still under the impression that you two know nothing about her birthday, being the great idiots that you are. If you can keep the act going and tell all of yours and Hermione's friends to not say anything to her about her birthday as well, then I think I have a way of helping you."

Five minutes later, they exited the room, knocking out Crabbe and Goyle on the way so they wouldn't realize that the three of them had left the room without a scratch on any of them. Draco made his way up to the Great Hall quicker than the other two, realizing he was slightly late for the Head Boy and Girl's meeting with Professor Dumbledore. As he was taking his final steps toward the door he heard Dumbledore speaking to Hermione.

"Hello, Miss Granger! I see you are here early to lunch for our meeting. Ah, but where is Mr. Malfoy."

"He..er…he's probably…umm…"

"Right here, Professor. Sorry I'm a little bit late."

"Quite all right, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore replied. Was that a mischievous glint in his eye? "Won't you two please follow me to a more quiet place so we can have a chat?"

Dumbledore led them to a room behind the Great Hall where the Tri-Wizard Tournament students met after their names came out of the Goblet of Fire. As they walked, Hermione looked over at Draco. He didn't look like he'd been in a fight at all. She wondered how Harry and Ron looked if Draco looked like this. They'd have time to run to the hospital wing before Hermione saw them though, so she wouldn't know how badly they were injured. When the reached the room they found three comfortable looking, amethyst colored chairs arranged nicely in front of a brightly burning fireplace. The headmaster took a seat at one chair and signaled for Draco and Hermione to do the same. He stared at the fire for a minute and then began to speak.

"Both of you, I'm sure, are fully aware what is happened outside of Hogwarts' grounds. With everything that has been happening, I am forced to cancel all Hogsmeade trips in concern of the students' safety. In place of those this winter Hogsmeade trip, I would like the two of you to plan an event for the whole school to enjoy. Can you come up with any ideas at this moment?"

After the initial shock of hearing there would be no trips to Hogsmeade, both began thinking of what could take the place of a trip to Honeydukes, one of the students' favorite shops.

"We could have a ball," Hermione suggested. "We haven't had a formal occasion since the Yule Ball during the Tri-Wizard tournament."

"An excellent suggestion, Hermione. Draco, do you have any ideas?"

"I think the ball is a wonderful idea, but it doesn't seem enough. There should be something the students can watch and enjoy. Something like, like…a play."

"A marvelous idea, Draco! Why, Hogwarts hasn't seen a theatrical performance for at least 40 years!"

"We could combine the two," chirped Hermione in excitement. "The play could be performed in the afternoon and a ball could be help in the evening. A Winter Festival!"

"Wonderful ideas, both of you. But we can't very well have the whole school trying out for this play, can we? That would be a monstrous task of auditioning all of the students."

"I suppose you're right," said Draco thoughtfully. "What if we limited the amount of students to audition. Possibly to a certain group or year."

"PREFECTS!" Hermione burst out. "The play could feature the acting capabilities of the Prefects!"

"Excellent!" said Dumbledore with equal enthusiasm. "But I assume that would include the Head Girl and Boy as well."

Hermione and Draco looked at each other then back to Dumbledore. "A lovely idea Professor, but I'm not sure on Draco's acting skills and I'm more of a singer myself," said Hermione with a teasing smile at Draco.

"A musical, then! What a fantastic idea, Hermione." Her jaw fell to the floor. She didn't mean to suggest a musical. And now she felt obligated to audition. "I assume that a group of professors including my self will audition you all," he continued. "What musical could we perform? Something that has an old story to it but a timeless idea. And something with magic in it could keep the students interested."

She thought of it immediately. An old story but a timeless idea, something with magic, a musical. It all fit. She could suggest one of her favorite children's story that was made into a movie by an American company. Disney was the name, she thought. Draco still looked puzzled as to any suggestions, so why not suggest it?

"Cinderella?" she said quietly. "It was my favorite movie when I was younger," Hermione continued. "It has a multiple songs in it, obviously the main character, Cinderella, having the majority of those songs to sing. But there are talking animal characters. Using the Polyjuice potion to change some student to look like animals would be out of the question because first of all students aren't supposed to make that potion," she smiled to herself, "and second of all it's very dangerous, having horrible effects on the person afterwards." She shuddered thinking of the time in second year after she accidentally turned herself into a cat. "Instead of actually looking like the animal, we can dress the actors like the animal with fabric ears and buttons for noses and the like. And also we could use actual magic in the play. Of course, only one character would have to know these spells, but it's basically transfiguration and charms. It would actually be very simple!"

Draco was astounded that Hermione could come up with that detailed of plans in such a short amount of time. "I think it's a wonderful idea," he spoke for the first time in a while, "Let's do it!"

"Stupendous! Cinderella it is, then! We can inform the Prefects about this musical at the next prefect meeting on the Saturday. Thank you for your quick thinking, both of you. I, if nobody else, am certainly looking forward to this event. I'll leave you two to discuss anything else that you might have in mind." With that, Dumbledore exited the room.

Hermione stood up as if to leave and began humming a tune that seemed strangely familiar to Draco, as if he'd heard it somewhere before. "What is that you're humming?" he asked still seated in his chair, "It has a pretty sound to it."

"What?" She stopped walking. She hadn't realized she'd been humming loudly enough for him to hear. "Oh, it's just a short song from the musical. It is sung when Cinderella and the prince are dancing at the ball. It has words, you know."

"Really? And what are these words?" he asked as if challenging her to sing it.

"Oh, I'd rather not…I don't think…"

"Come on, I insist," Draco said giving her a pleading smile.

"Well…all right. It goes like this: So this is love mmm mm mmm mm, so this is love. So this is what makes life divine. I'm all a-glow mmm mm mmm mm, and now I know the key to all heaven is love. My heart has wings mmm mm mmm mm, and I can fly. I'll touch every star in the sky. So this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of. Mmm mm mmm mm, so this is love."

He knew those words. That was the song that 'his wife' had been humming in his dream last night. How strange that they would hum the same song. Of course one of them was only in his dream, but Hermione had sang it beautifully, just now, and as if that song controlled her very soul.

"Wow," Draco said after she finished. "That was amazing. I didn't know how well you sang. Thank you for singing it for me. I know you didn't want to but I'm glad you did"

With a modest blush Hermione sat back down in her chair. "I was thinking just now that maybe we should have a different kind of prefect meeting. Like a luncheon of sorts, to celebrate the upcoming winter festival. During the luncheon we can discuss when auditions will be, who will be participating as actors or stage hands, all sorts of stuff."

"Great idea. We can hold it in the Room of Requirements. How about you inform the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Prefects and I'll let the Ravenclaws and Slytherins know about it. We could have just a simple lunch. How do turkey and ham sandwiches sound to you?"

"Sounds delightful. And we can serve butterbeer and tea for refreshments."

"Good. Maybe we can get the house elves to make the sandwiches and some kind of side dish. Does that sound okay to you?"

Hermione gave a slight frown at forcing the house elves to do more work, but nevertheless agreed to the plan. "Speaking of lunch, if we don't leave this room then we'll miss today's lunch" At that, the two left the room and went to their separate house tables. Hermione sat across from Ginny and Neville and informed Ginny about the newly revised Prefect meeting and told her to inform the rest of the Gryffindor Prefects in case Hermione couldn't find them before Saturday afternoon. From the looks of it, Draco was saying the same thing to one of his sixth year Slytherin Prefects. A smile crept across Hermione's face when she realized how lucky she was that both Dumbledore and Draco agreed to 'her play'.

The rest of the day went along rather dully to Hermione. It seemed that not one person had remembered her birthday, though it wasn't bothering her as much as it had been earlier. She didn't want to tell anybody either. She always had this thing where she put other people before herself. So why should she bother her friends with such unimportant information when there was a war going on outside of Hogwarts. Surely they were all worried about their families. Why should Hermione make them think about just one more thing? These were her thoughts when she sat down on a chair in the Heads' common room after dinner that night. Suddenly Draco burst through the portrait out of breath and sounding very urgent.

"Hermione! Come quick! One of the Gryffindor Prefects just told me that something is going on in the Room of Requirements and he wasn't sure if he could handle it himself so he found me and I came to get you. If it's a big Wizard's duel, we'll need the both of us there to straighten things out."

Hermione shot out of her seat and bolted out of the door with Draco tailing close behind her. They reached the Room of Requirements in minutes and waited for the door to appear. They both pulled out their wands and Draco slowly reached for the door handle. He threw the door open and a flood of periwinkle and white confetti showered the two of them. The room was scattered with Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.

"SURPRISE!" they all yelled.


End file.
